- Culture
- 10 Oct 22
Religious orders involved in Mother & Baby Homes haven't paid into redress scheme
The scheme was announced a year ago but does not yet have a start date due to ongoing negotiations with the religious orders.
The six religious orders who were involved in Mother and Baby Homes have yet to agree to pay toward the redress scheme that would compensate an estimated 34,000 survivors.
The Irish Government and Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman are requesting the Catholic Church, Church of Ireland, and religious congregations help pay for part of the €800m scheme. No agreement has been reached, and O'Gorman remains in discussion with relevant leaders, The Irish Examiner has reported. The scheme was announced a year ago, and O'Gorman hopes to have it set in place in the coming months.
"The discussions in regard to seeking a contribution from the religious congregations towards the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme are ongoing. In order to allow for open engagement throughout, and keeping with the standard approach taken to matters of negotiation, it was agreed that this process, while ongoing, would be treated as confidential," said a spokesperson for the Department of Children.
The scheme will compensate mothers and children who stayed in any of these homes and provide them with enhanced medical care. However, it has been criticised for the number of limitations that only open redress to about 40% of survivors. For example, children may only receive compensation if they stayed in a home for over six months.
This past July, President Michael D. Higgins signed a bill into law allowing for the excavation of remains at the sites of former mother and baby institutions. This will allow for recovery and analysis of the burial sights, and DNA-based identification usage to reunite families with the remains of their loved ones.
The minister using the info and tracing bill (which has had many critics), redress (which ignores what survivors asked for) and the archive as a defence for shelving a commitment investigation into how testimony was gathered by the M and B Commission. This is quite something. https://t.co/F31PSLs8mw
— Conall Ó Fátharta (@ococonuts) October 7, 2022
